Lisata Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:LSTA) has announced the first step of an intended multi-part strategic agreement with GATC Health, a leading drug discovery firm leveraging artificial intelligence.
The partnership combines GATC’s proprietary Multiomics Advanced Technology (MAT) AI platform with Lisata’s expertise in drug development to reduce risks and improve efficiency in bringing new therapies to market.
The AI platform simulates billions of biological interactions, predicting safety, efficacy, and clinical outcomes to streamline the drug development process.
As part of this collaboration, GATC’s AI will analyze Lisata’s investigational drug, certepetide, to identify the most promising disease targets and optimize its development strategy.
This includes refining certepetide’s Phase 3 program for metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC) and exploring additional indications with high potential for success.
Future phases of the collaboration will see GATC’s AI identifying combination therapies for certepetide across multiple disease areas.
Additionally, Lisata will provide operational support to advance GATC’s own drug candidates into clinical trials.
Highest probability of success
GATC’s AI-driven approach has already contributed to the discovery of potential treatments for conditions such as addiction, PTSD, diabetes, obesity, and glioblastoma, the company highlighted.
“By combining our expertise with GATC and their cutting-edge AI technology, we are ensuring that Lisata’s and GATC’s development programs have the highest probability of success, allowing us the ability to conduct the most time- and capital-efficient studies to accelerate products to market for the benefit of patients, the medical community, and our shareholders,” Lisata CEO Dr David Mazzo said in a statement.
“Lisata is delighted by the prospects of this agreement and is honored to be chosen as a strategic partner by GATC.”
Jayson Uffens, GATC chief technology officer, added that GATC’s technology provides an unbiased analysis of investigational new drugs like Lisata’s certepetide.
“This enables a derisked and optimized development roadmap that can include additional indications and new intellectual property related to the drug candidate,” Uffens said. “We are also pleased to collaborate with Lisata to leverage their expertise for GATC’s pipeline of assets.”
Shares of Lisata were up 8.6% on Wendesday afternoon in New York.